Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2 / Bach: Concerto in D minor / Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 6

This is a splendid record. The Bach is played with precision and a tight rhythm, and in the finale Ashkenazy produces a beautifully delicate pianissimo when this is called for. Perhaps the slow movement drags a little, and the strings don't always make their quaver appoggiaturas the same length as the pianist—the latter in my view rightly reducing them to semiquavers. But both soloist and orchestra are unusually expressive. The Chopin is, if anything, even more successful than the Bach, and in this work success is harder to come by. Great trouble has been taken by soloist, conductor and engineers to make the orchestral side of the concerto contribute to the full, and the result is that it sounds a much better work than usual. Perhaps it is a little obvious that there is a special microphone for the woodwind counter-subjects, but they do need one even when the soloist keeps down as sympathetically as Ashkenazy. Mr. Zinman, the conductor, has not come my way before. He seems to have taken a good deal more care over the accompaniments than most of those who have recorded this work previously, and the orchestral playing is unusually alive. Mr. Zinman is also a perceptive accompanist, as indeed he needs to be, for Ashkenazy uses a lot of rubato. And what a lovely performance he gives! I prefer myself a more unobtrusive approach to the first tune in the opening movement; Ashkenazy is a little too assertive. Otherwise he can hardly be faulted. The slow movement is marvellously poetic, while the end of the finale has a real touch of inspiration about it. Balance and sound in general are extremely pleasing, and, a small but not unimportant touch, you can hear the trombone quite clearly. So far as I can remember, in every other recording the trombonist is either inaudible or not even present, there being a theory that the part is superfluous. It is nothing of the kind. -- Gramophone [9/1965]